Well fellas.. wish me luck.. I called a lock junkyard 16 miles away and they seem to have a V8 front diff out of 2004 4runner with no locker. 30 minutes away and $125 bucks.. Hopefully this is exactly what I need and can get it picked up before 5 p.m. after I get out my last meeting.. Apparently it is already pulled and out of the car so we'll see. REALLY hoping it is complete and what I need... I actually wouldn't mind if its the full carrier with the intermediate shaft and all... just in case I find any damage on the other portions of the housing I'll at least have a core to transfer the guts into..
aemravan's build thread - project TacoRunner
- Thread starter aemravan
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y=mx+b
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If it comes with everything and the rest of your diff is good, I might be interested in buying the spare open diff off of you at the end of the summer when I get back to VA. Because my school/work schedule puts my all over the place, it would be nice to have an extra diff to send in as the core when I regear so I don't have to get it all done in exactly the 30 day timespan or whatever ecgs wants.
I Think I have a winner .. can’t tell a difference yet .. looks to be exact.
Andddd took a little time to inspect the carnage… enjoy .. all in all .. still feel fortunate as hell.
Only other thing I found was a bent caliper bolt. Look at the shaving the lower bracket took … that is amazing.. lol also need to source shorter bolts to remove the diff drop. Possibly a melted wheel speed sensor..
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Andddd took a little time to inspect the carnage… enjoy .. all in all .. still feel fortunate as hell.
Only other thing I found was a bent caliper bolt. Look at the shaving the lower bracket took … that is amazing.. lol also need to source shorter bolts to remove the diff drop. Possibly a melted wheel speed sensor..
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I'll let you know if I end up not needing the remainder of the unit for sure when I get done with everything.
Going to try and make some time tomorrow after work to start getting the control arm out and possibly the housings swapped to ensure I don't have any fitment issues.
Most of the parts may be here ahead of the 4th of July weekend, which would be nice to get it together next Monday.. but worst case it won't be too late into next week hopefully.
My brother was kind enough to load his dash cam footage of my attempt at a very stupid line when I lost my placement and should have gotten out to look.. you can hear the audible snap of the shaft at the end and there was no skid plate bouncing at that moment, but again, I did bash it really good just prior to this.. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utDQ4IcCN0E
Most of the parts may be here ahead of the 4th of July weekend, which would be nice to get it together next Monday.. but worst case it won't be too late into next week hopefully.
My brother was kind enough to load his dash cam footage of my attempt at a very stupid line when I lost my placement and should have gotten out to look.. you can hear the audible snap of the shaft at the end and there was no skid plate bouncing at that moment, but again, I did bash it really good just prior to this.. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utDQ4IcCN0E
gm350reratliff
New member
I do agree these may be too heavy to wheel hard- with the IFS. SAS it, upgrade the rear axle and you could definitely wheel as hard as you want.
After having dumped all the time an money into the steering setup amongst other things like RCV axles .. I don't think SAS is in the stars for this build.. Too much time and money. Not to mention I realized that I'm not really THAT Much into hard core wheeling.. between not having readily available places to go to, and also needing a reliable daily (which this is lol) I will probably be transitioning more into the overland/camping that this build was originally intended for. We'll see.. you never know with me. lol
I do , very much, enjoy the comfort of the IFS for street and trail driving vs getting thrown around with a solid axle..
Here is what a $120, 1 hour long mistake looks like.
In the process of offloading the rig from the trailer we failed to keep an eye on the torn out axle , and the worm gear clamp got caught and snagged the boot wide open… 1 boot, tube of RCV grease and overnight shipping set me back $120 and took an hour to do.. this Molly grease gets absolutely everywhere.. and this is me actively trying to be clean lol.
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In the process of offloading the rig from the trailer we failed to keep an eye on the torn out axle , and the worm gear clamp got caught and snagged the boot wide open… 1 boot, tube of RCV grease and overnight shipping set me back $120 and took an hour to do.. this Molly grease gets absolutely everywhere.. and this is me actively trying to be clean lol.
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Made a little progress today.. the lower control arm is on, the ball joint bracket is on, and the intermediate shaft is separated and ready for clean up..
Couldn’t for the life of me get the remaining piece of shaft from inside of the diff.. I think I’ll need to turn to the welder and get a piece of tube welded on to give it a good yank.
When I got the housing off my heart sank a bit… the copper air line for the locker took some damage from the broken pieces of shaft… I really don’t want to pull the diff.. much less tear it down .. to my surprise.. it doesn’t leak air.. and still engages the locker.. I’m tempted to just leave it ..
I found quite a few metal shavings at the entrance of this opening.. and don’t know if many would have had a chance to get inside of the oil hole. Once it’s together I think I’m going to drain the fluid and see what it looks like .. I may need to pump it full of thinner fluid to do a flush just to be safe..
Fingers crossed that nothing is hurt with the diff and that it doesn’t get any shavings inside to do damage. It’s quite possible that the luck continues.. I hope.
Going to make an attempt Saturday morning to hopefully get it wrapped up.. we’ll see..
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Couldn’t for the life of me get the remaining piece of shaft from inside of the diff.. I think I’ll need to turn to the welder and get a piece of tube welded on to give it a good yank.
When I got the housing off my heart sank a bit… the copper air line for the locker took some damage from the broken pieces of shaft… I really don’t want to pull the diff.. much less tear it down .. to my surprise.. it doesn’t leak air.. and still engages the locker.. I’m tempted to just leave it ..
I found quite a few metal shavings at the entrance of this opening.. and don’t know if many would have had a chance to get inside of the oil hole. Once it’s together I think I’m going to drain the fluid and see what it looks like .. I may need to pump it full of thinner fluid to do a flush just to be safe..
Fingers crossed that nothing is hurt with the diff and that it doesn’t get any shavings inside to do damage. It’s quite possible that the luck continues.. I hope.
Going to make an attempt Saturday morning to hopefully get it wrapped up.. we’ll see..
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Progress…
Got the broken shaft out with the help of a welded on bolt. Got the housing and shaft on and removed the drip bracket kit.. letting the gasket cure until tomorrow when I’m hoping to get this thing mechanically sound.
Need to do a flush on the diff to make sure I get al the shavings out. Fingers crossed it’s all still good
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Got the broken shaft out with the help of a welded on bolt. Got the housing and shaft on and removed the drip bracket kit.. letting the gasket cure until tomorrow when I’m hoping to get this thing mechanically sound.
Need to do a flush on the diff to make sure I get al the shavings out. Fingers crossed it’s all still good
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Happy 4th of July weekend.
Battle scarred and beaten up, but the land whale made it home under its own power. Went ahead and pulled the fender to keep the damage from spreading .. the snorkel bracket unfortunately ripped partially out so I’ll need to set it back again.. fun stuff. I did have a bit of a water seep going with a little rust starting to form so maybe blessing in disguise.. I half considered pulling the snorkel off and patching the fender closed like it was before..
The passenger rotor may have take a bit of damage with some surface marks I didn’t like too much but I installed it anyway .. seems to not make any noise or vibration but I may swap this out down the road .. it’s a nice brembo rotor so it wasn’t the cheapest l.. the brake pads also took a bit of a hit on the edge as the caliper was ripping off but still in OK shape for now.
I found an interesting discovery .. at full droop my worm clamps on the RCV axle hit the top of the control arm… the factory style flat band on the other side clears… so now I’m thinking about pulling that clamp off and redoing it with the one RCV sent me .. not sure if I have the proper tool to do. Last thing I need after all this is to rip that boot because the clamp catches as it droops out.. never ending ! Lol
I feel like I’m hearing all sorts of noises and rattles that weren’t there before, but I’m almost certain it’s just paranoia.. certainly no mechanical grinding sounds of any sort .. hopefully the diff is ok but I guess time will tell. I have 4wd and 4lo and it doesn’t complain so should hopefully be ok. I went over all the possible bolts so hopefully she’ll hold up. A bit uneasy driving it again after the wheel coming off on me last time lol.
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Battle scarred and beaten up, but the land whale made it home under its own power. Went ahead and pulled the fender to keep the damage from spreading .. the snorkel bracket unfortunately ripped partially out so I’ll need to set it back again.. fun stuff. I did have a bit of a water seep going with a little rust starting to form so maybe blessing in disguise.. I half considered pulling the snorkel off and patching the fender closed like it was before..
The passenger rotor may have take a bit of damage with some surface marks I didn’t like too much but I installed it anyway .. seems to not make any noise or vibration but I may swap this out down the road .. it’s a nice brembo rotor so it wasn’t the cheapest l.. the brake pads also took a bit of a hit on the edge as the caliper was ripping off but still in OK shape for now.
I found an interesting discovery .. at full droop my worm clamps on the RCV axle hit the top of the control arm… the factory style flat band on the other side clears… so now I’m thinking about pulling that clamp off and redoing it with the one RCV sent me .. not sure if I have the proper tool to do. Last thing I need after all this is to rip that boot because the clamp catches as it droops out.. never ending ! Lol
I feel like I’m hearing all sorts of noises and rattles that weren’t there before, but I’m almost certain it’s just paranoia.. certainly no mechanical grinding sounds of any sort .. hopefully the diff is ok but I guess time will tell. I have 4wd and 4lo and it doesn’t complain so should hopefully be ok. I went over all the possible bolts so hopefully she’ll hold up. A bit uneasy driving it again after the wheel coming off on me last time lol.
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A quick update from this weekend, but without pictures.. was too busy and short on time.
The 4runner is still road-worthy it would seem. I got to the bottom of a couple of noises I was hearing.. Some sort of a new rattle was driving me nuts. I ended up pulling everything out of the drawer system, all the tools, literally everything.. come to find out, it was an upper link mounting bolt above the gas tank coming loose. I'm assuming from all the flexing and bouncing offroad. This is the really crappy one to get to so I'm guess I never get it quite as tight as the others. In hindsight I probably should just loctite the hell out of it and throw on a locking nylon nut..
I also found out that I knocked my rear diff skid around pretty hard and the front side of it was rubbing on the diff yoke. That resolved the noises I was hearing from the rear. Definitely have much more peace of mind now. I also saw that I managed to catch the lower shock mount on the passenger side on a rock pretty good. Feel pretty stupid for not re-installing my homemade skids for it.. At some point I will also have to address the lower link mounts as well since they're pretty banged up at this point.
Now onto the front.. I made some discoveries on my new steering setup that explain a lot of what I've been feeling with the steering getting tight in a spot or two. Checking for clearance in a static, hanging situation when building out the steering shaft was great. However, what I see now with the rig on the ground is that the shaft moved around ,A LOT. It definitely makes a bit of contact to the motor mount at some point in the rotation because I can see a scratch all the way around the circumference. Doesn't look terrible, and I'm more than likely going to just leave it until the next time I have the axle out since its the only way to get decent room to do any work up there.
The other point of impact I found was on the u-joint of the steering shaft. It also slightly impacts the motor mount/rail and has been the slight binding feeling I have been experiencing. What I did temporarily (until I build my second shaft) was loosen the connection and slide the u-joint back a bit to give me a little more room, which seemed to have fixed the issue, at least partially. My recommendation for other folks looking to tackle the LC200 is to experiment with positioning the rack back, not forward. If positioning it back isn't an option to the coils I would definitely recommend clearancing the mount and frame rail more than I did
it's proven to be quite a project for sure lol.
I think what I may do when building out the second shaft is use a flap disk to knock down some of the high spots on the u-joint body to aid with clearance and build out the splines 1/8" further out so it doesnt sit so close to the rack when mounted.
I also pin-pointed (at least roughly) the area of where some slight popping/clunking is coming from the steering shaft. Its on the u joint that is inside of the cabin right at the rubber puck. I can feel a slight wiggle there. Not sure if its coming from the u-joint itself, or something with the puck design.
I can tell you that when steering the wheel and watching the puck, even though everything is tight, I can see it lift up as it makes it turning motion. I'm guessing this is by design to help isolate vibration or something.. but can't be certain.. I'll need to do some more digging to see what this is. It's not bad on-road. But offroad when the wheels are going over medium speed rutted sections you can hear/feel it pretty bad. Last thing I need is to have something fail on the steering system
And lastly.. I'm back on the market looking for a decent brake setup.. my pad and rotor that took a trip off the car and into the woods aren't 100%.. the pads chipped up top as the wheel side loaded the rotor/caliper before it snapped and the rotor also has some surface scarring that I'm not sure is good to let live on the car long term. Considering getting some slotted/cross drilled rotors (though previously i have been super against these for off-road purposes) to help keep the heat down while they try to stop this whale during city/highway driving. This, along with the ABS sensors I just ordered brings my grand-total of the screw-up to somewhere around $1000. again, all in all, super fortunate that this is all that it cost all around.. not just financially.
The 4runner is still road-worthy it would seem. I got to the bottom of a couple of noises I was hearing.. Some sort of a new rattle was driving me nuts. I ended up pulling everything out of the drawer system, all the tools, literally everything.. come to find out, it was an upper link mounting bolt above the gas tank coming loose. I'm assuming from all the flexing and bouncing offroad. This is the really crappy one to get to so I'm guess I never get it quite as tight as the others. In hindsight I probably should just loctite the hell out of it and throw on a locking nylon nut..
I also found out that I knocked my rear diff skid around pretty hard and the front side of it was rubbing on the diff yoke. That resolved the noises I was hearing from the rear. Definitely have much more peace of mind now. I also saw that I managed to catch the lower shock mount on the passenger side on a rock pretty good. Feel pretty stupid for not re-installing my homemade skids for it.. At some point I will also have to address the lower link mounts as well since they're pretty banged up at this point.
Now onto the front.. I made some discoveries on my new steering setup that explain a lot of what I've been feeling with the steering getting tight in a spot or two. Checking for clearance in a static, hanging situation when building out the steering shaft was great. However, what I see now with the rig on the ground is that the shaft moved around ,A LOT. It definitely makes a bit of contact to the motor mount at some point in the rotation because I can see a scratch all the way around the circumference. Doesn't look terrible, and I'm more than likely going to just leave it until the next time I have the axle out since its the only way to get decent room to do any work up there.
The other point of impact I found was on the u-joint of the steering shaft. It also slightly impacts the motor mount/rail and has been the slight binding feeling I have been experiencing. What I did temporarily (until I build my second shaft) was loosen the connection and slide the u-joint back a bit to give me a little more room, which seemed to have fixed the issue, at least partially. My recommendation for other folks looking to tackle the LC200 is to experiment with positioning the rack back, not forward. If positioning it back isn't an option to the coils I would definitely recommend clearancing the mount and frame rail more than I did
it's proven to be quite a project for sure lol. I think what I may do when building out the second shaft is use a flap disk to knock down some of the high spots on the u-joint body to aid with clearance and build out the splines 1/8" further out so it doesnt sit so close to the rack when mounted.
I also pin-pointed (at least roughly) the area of where some slight popping/clunking is coming from the steering shaft. Its on the u joint that is inside of the cabin right at the rubber puck. I can feel a slight wiggle there. Not sure if its coming from the u-joint itself, or something with the puck design.
I can tell you that when steering the wheel and watching the puck, even though everything is tight, I can see it lift up as it makes it turning motion. I'm guessing this is by design to help isolate vibration or something.. but can't be certain.. I'll need to do some more digging to see what this is. It's not bad on-road. But offroad when the wheels are going over medium speed rutted sections you can hear/feel it pretty bad. Last thing I need is to have something fail on the steering system
And lastly.. I'm back on the market looking for a decent brake setup.. my pad and rotor that took a trip off the car and into the woods aren't 100%.. the pads chipped up top as the wheel side loaded the rotor/caliper before it snapped and the rotor also has some surface scarring that I'm not sure is good to let live on the car long term. Considering getting some slotted/cross drilled rotors (though previously i have been super against these for off-road purposes) to help keep the heat down while they try to stop this whale during city/highway driving. This, along with the ABS sensors I just ordered brings my grand-total of the screw-up to somewhere around $1000. again, all in all, super fortunate that this is all that it cost all around.. not just financially.
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After going back and forth between various options/kits/combos of brake options, I decided to settle on a full out OEM rotor/pad setup instead of trying either power stop, R1 concept, etc kits.. The Stop Tech setup seemed to be the only one I would have possibly had good luck with long term.. but at over $500 to start with just for the fronts is not something I'm looking to do.
Found a full set of OEM rotors/shims/pads from Toyota for just under $300 so I'll give that a go and see how they hold up.
Found a full set of OEM rotors/shims/pads from Toyota for just under $300 so I'll give that a go and see how they hold up.
My only offroading is low speed dirt road/rock crawling so from a brake pad perspective I was just looking at something to not be loud or overly dusty as it wears down. If I had to guess, I'm roughly 6300-6500lbs with all the stuff I have on it lol, so I need something that can put up with the heat stopping at highway speeds and not warp the rotor too quick.. I know factory rotors are hit and miss, but I decided to gamble on these and see where they get me. Drill and slotted rotors seem enticing.. but I just feel like i would pack them with dirt and ruin the pads really quick.
The brembo rotors I'm getting ready to take off seemed to do decent, but I don't have many miles on them and as of recent they have been making noise when coming to a stop (kind of as if they were overheated and the brakepad wasn't making even contact) even though I went through the 100% exact bedding procedure Brembo provided.
I’ve been looking at the amount of lift I’m sitting at up front for a while.. so finally decided to address what I was seeing. I adjusted the icon coil overs 2 full turns (so maybe a 1/2” difference in height or so ?) to lower the front end. This corrected a lot of the positive camber I was seeing sitting flat. I feel like this will also allow me to take full advantage of the up travel without Binding the spring and not reaching the bump stop since some of the preload is removed.
This also corrected the toe in I’m seeing when accelerating since it put me closer to the full bump vs full droop. Here is what is looks like with a bit of rake, but this is also fully unloaded with everything out of the rear.
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This also corrected the toe in I’m seeing when accelerating since it put me closer to the full bump vs full droop. Here is what is looks like with a bit of rake, but this is also fully unloaded with everything out of the rear.
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Bought an Amazon bandclamp tool and got the worm clamp on the RCV axle replaced.. feels pretty solid.. so we’ll see how it holds up. Definitely a ton more clearance to the control arm.
I also have been experiencing some steering wheel related rattling / knocking / clunking , particularly off-road at low speeds on bumpy roads. After researching for two hours and seeing various solutions that apparently fixed similar issues decided to give it a go.
No bolts were loose, the intermediate shaft I joint is in perfect condition, it isn’t the extension puck, it isn’t the tilt ball.. after tearing everything apart I think the issue resides in the upper splined telescoping shaft.. you can definitely feel just a bit of back and forth sop in the splines.. yay.. at least I haven’t purchased any parts yet lol.
What I am attempting to do is give the outer shaft a bit of a squeeze to oval it just a touch and see if it’ll tighten up .. other than that I don’t see a way to fix the issue without buying a new splined shaft assembly (if it’s even available by itself lol)
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I also have been experiencing some steering wheel related rattling / knocking / clunking , particularly off-road at low speeds on bumpy roads. After researching for two hours and seeing various solutions that apparently fixed similar issues decided to give it a go.
No bolts were loose, the intermediate shaft I joint is in perfect condition, it isn’t the extension puck, it isn’t the tilt ball.. after tearing everything apart I think the issue resides in the upper splined telescoping shaft.. you can definitely feel just a bit of back and forth sop in the splines.. yay.. at least I haven’t purchased any parts yet lol.
What I am attempting to do is give the outer shaft a bit of a squeeze to oval it just a touch and see if it’ll tighten up .. other than that I don’t see a way to fix the issue without buying a new splined shaft assembly (if it’s even available by itself lol)
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So after doing a bit of searching buying a different shaft or assembly is out of question.. I can get a used one for $150 but what are the odds it has the same issue ? New the assembly is over $1000 so out of question. I am almost certain the outer shaft is aluminum so can’t weld it .. thought about drilling and roll pinning it but don’t feel like doing that. But what I did come across is something call loctite 660 joining compound for metal repair. It’s specific for jetways, loose splines, etc. have it on order with Amazon so we’ll see if it works. Not sure if I’ll be able to get it between the splines enough but for 20 bucks it’s worth a shot.. if this doesn’t work I may consider buying a spare assembly and see if I can drill and pin it , though I’m not sure it would fix the slop if I’m not careful with the hole.
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